Greg Innes paints the wild spaces of Vancouver Island — forests, coastlines, wildlife, and open, imagined horizons. His work moves between landscape, abstraction, and moments of subtle surrealism.

Based in Sooke, his paintings begin either outdoors in shifting light or in the studio, where memory, imagination, and reference reshape real places into something slightly altered. Familiar landscapes become quieter, more contemplative spaces.

For nearly three decades, Greg built fine rustic furniture by hand, sketching each design and shaping carefully sourced wood. That deep understanding of material now carries into his painting practice. Many works are presented in handcrafted driftwood or bark frames made in his forest workshop — extending the landscape beyond the painted surface.

Composition plays a central, though often quiet, role. Underlying geometry and dynamic symmetry guide the placement of forms, while figures and faces — when present — are rendered with deliberate clarity against looser, more painterly surroundings.

His influences include Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Maynard Dixon, Salvador Dalí, and Gustav Klimt — artists who balanced structure, atmosphere, and imagination.

Greg’s current focus is on oil painting and the creation of frames that carry the presence of the forest into each finished piece.

Greg’s work has been featured in Out of the Woods: Woodworkers Along the Salish Sea for his woodworking, and in Sea & Cedar: Literature & Art Magazine (Fall 2025) for his paintings.